Australia's International Riverfoundation honors Jacksonville District for Upper St. Johns River Basin  

Jacksonville District Deputy Engineer for Project Management David Hobbie, second from right, traveled to Brisbane, Australia to accept the Thiess Riverprize on behalf of the St. Johns River Water Management District. (Courtesy Photo)

Dec. 22, 2008

By Barry Vorse
Jacksonville District

A project engineered by the of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Jacksonville District has won the Australian based International Riverfoundation's International Thiess Riverprize for 2008.

The river advocacy organization honored the project co-sponsors, the St. Johns River Water Management District (SJRWMD) and the Corps' Jacksonville District for the Upper St. Johns River Basin Project earlier this fall. Jacksonville Deputy District Engineer for Project Management, David Hobbie, accepted the award for the Corps.

"Maurice Sterling (SJRWMD project management director) and I agreed that we know we both do some great work," Hobbie said.  "But when an international body recognizes that fact on a major stage, it really means a great deal to our organizations and to all of the many individual experts involved from both agencies."

"The St. Johns River Basin Project is a large wetlands restoration initiative which addresses environmental degradation and flood control in the headwater region of the St. Johns River," said Professor Paul Greenfield, the Riverprize judging panel Chair. "It is one of the largest river restoration projects in the U.S. and represents a 30-year collaboration between state and federal water managers. The project uses innovative approaches in design and management to combine environmental benefits with flood risk mitigation over 60 kilometers of river length and thousands of acres of floodplain.

Located at the headwaters of the St. Johns River and originally designed as a flood risk mitigation effort, the project became an example of habitat restoration. In 1999 following the completion of one phase of the project, Corps personnel counted 60 Ospreys, fish-eating hawks, during a 90-minute airboat tour of the project in an area where none had existed prior to the project. The results were so positive that the project was used as an example of success when other efforts toward restoration, such as the Kissimmee River and the Everglades were being championed.

This is the 10th year of the International Thiess Riverprize, which began as an initiative to award best practices for restoration and the sustainable preservation of rivers and waterways. More than $2 million has been awarded in river restoration work.

"It's inspiring to see such dynamic projects across the world improving our waterways- ecological sustainability," Greenfield said. "The inspirational outcomes of this initiative exemplify the spirit of the prize and it's an honor to reward a project that has done such a brilliant job delivering such exceptional results."

Jacksonville District personnel who have served as project managers for the project include Mike Ornella, Pete Milam and Steven Robinson.